Sunday, February 10, 2013

Baby B's Baby Shower

This weekend I was able to throw my younger sister a baby shower for her first baby that will be due at the beginning of April. I've thrown one other baby shower in the past but still feel very new to the whole shower thing.

Alyson isn't much for having the attention on her so she requested that we keep it low key and close family and friends. Okay, that sounds pretty easy to do! And you know what? I feel like it went fantastically!

While coming up with decorations I decided to keep the colors consistent with my sister's colors for the baby room. That way if she likes the decorations she can use them in the baby room because let's be honest, what would I do with them when we're done? So- brown and light green it was!!

What was on the menu you may ask? Well just America's favorite snack- rice krispy treats! But with a little twist- cupcake rice krispies. Find the recipe here. Then we kept it healthy with a fruit cup of various fruit followed by a homemade fondue created with a simple crock pot and mason jars with chocolate, homemade caramel, and marshmallow. Washin' that down with some delicious OJ or water (simple. classy).

Since I'm a little A.D.D. myself I always feel like there has to be a little activity for people to participate in in between conversing, eating, and watching presents being opened. Since it was a come and go as well as "low key" I kept it simple with a baby word search, baby word scramble, a baby sweets game, and my new favorite ---  a game where you take the mom's face and dad's face and cut and paste what you think the baby will look like!  Originally seen here.  I must say- people got very creative and viewing the results were pure comedy.

All in all we had an amazing turn out with grandmas, aunts, cousins, sisters, and friends... and how could we forget our FAVORITE little peanut Sidney :)
The drinks and treats.


Baby Shower games and gifts

Opening presents and taking names!

Grandmas, Aunt Kim, and Sid

Huh?!

Group shot!!

The beautiful mom-to-be and me ;)

My youngest sister B with Mom-to-be

The most precious little smiling toddler around!!

Absolutely precious



All in all I had a fantastic time and would do it again in a heartbeat!! Thanks to all our friends and family for showing up and making Alyson's day so amazing!  

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Its beginning to look a lot like Sarah...


The last couple of weeks have been crazy busy with some pretty significant life changes for me. As my closest family and friends already know, a week and a half ago I accepted a new nursing position (on a surgical specialty unit), in a new city (by new I mean I haven't lived there YET), and with a new room mate (my boyfriend of 8 months-read about how we met here). PHEWFTA thats a LOT of change all at once! 

I've changed nursing positions several times (it never gets any easier--I'm still biting my nails with anxiety of the unknown), and I've moved to new cities before (finding my new favorite shops and eating places is a lot of fun) but I have never lived with a boyfriend before. Friends that are boys-yes. But never a boyfriend.


I must say- we were both VERY excited when I was offered my new job at the University hospital.

All smiles :) :)


Minus me procrastinating on packing and sorting all of my things until the night before, everything went really smoothly with my parents and my aunt and uncle bringing a trailer down early Saturday morning and loading everything up. After we unloaded everything into Derek's 2 bedroom duplex we did a little shopping and went out for pizza to show our appreciation for everyone's hard work. By the time we got home Derek and I wanted nothing more than to lay down and watch a movie until we passed out. So- after Derek installed my TV on it's wall mount and discovered the magnificence of my Apple TV, we found a movie and were both sleeping in T-minus 5 minutes.

The first week was a lot of unpacking and compromising when we found we each had our own of something but only needed one instead of two. There was also a lot of- "I really like this painting can you take down THAT picture?" and,
"Derek, should I keep this or get rid of it?" "Get rid of it" "But...are you sure we won't....ugh ok."

This is how I look when the toilet seat is left up
Surprisingly, Derek loves having my girly decorations on the wall that makes the duplex feel more homey and unsurprisingly is ecstatic about my oober comfortable sofa as well as my awesome Apple TV that he didn't even know I had and can't stop talking about how its just SO cool! What is Derek less excited about? Oh probably my overly attached little nugget Oswald that never seems to be any farther than a foot from me at any given moment making it hard to manage even a simple hug with him around. Or how bobby pins turn up any where and every where...whether it be in the bed, on the floor, all over the bathroom, etc. etc. 

Me? I've fallen in love with Derek's 27" iMac computer--perfect for facebooking, pinteresting, and most importantly blog cruisin' :)  Also, Derek makes a fantastic breakfast-- whether I'm ready to get out of bed in the morning or not he will bring it to me {hearts}! Not so fantastic about living with the beau? Mostly- walking into the bathroom about to pee my pants and the toilet seat is UP! In fairness however, he has been working really hard to remember to put it down and has started doing a fantastic job as of late.

COLD SHOWERS!
My other pet peeve? The fact that the shower stays warm long enough for me to get shampoo in and immediately washed out of my hair before it turns luke warm and then conditioner in and washed out immediately before the shower is ice cold already!! Did I mention how much I LOVE a nice long HOT shower?! No more diddle daddling and singing songs in the shower for this girl. I get in and out in record times (and to think...thats where I got all my best ideas...)

But that's it so far. Thats the end of our cons list...or at least on my end :) We had a little break from each other this past weekend when I had to finish my last weekend of work at my previous employer but now I'm back...and I must say, its only been a week but it already feels like home!

 I start orientation for the new position on Monday (I get more nervous the closer the time comes), so until then I'm trying to put my pain-in-the-butt laundry away and catch up on some sleep before the next adventure begins!

Now for a short camera roll of pictures (and I do mean short!): 
The living room before we actually filled the picture frames completely with pictures
Our little kitchen. Banana anyone?


Obviously in the land of the Hawkeyes. One of the few bachelor decorations that got to stay!

"My" room. filled with every thing "Sarah" (and Derek's computer)!
Short but sweet little tour but now at least y'all have an idea of how it looks! Basically....it looks like I threw up all over Derek's duplex's walls and I LOVE it :)


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